Forgotten
by NopeNo
Summary: Reid has been taken and lost all of his memories of being 'Spencer Reid.' With the help of his friends and family, he will start to remember everything, even memories he didn't know he had of his tragic past. warning for graphic scenes and child abuse
1. Chapter 1

Hotch sighs and rubs at his forehead, trying to alleviate the oncoming headache. These cases lately have been hard on him and his team, making them even more frustrated than before. The black-haired man glances at his watch, despite looking at it just a minute ago, and groans. Today was going to be a long day. Not that every other day for the past four months haven't been frustrating all in themselves, the guilt of what happened then still stuck within their minds.

He shifts slightly in his chair, getting restless, waiting for anything to come up and to keep his mind busy from thinking about _him._ No one dares to say his name, in fear that it would bring up the memories of what happened and the guilt that they couldn't do anything to help. Garcia still tears up at the mention of him and Morgan gets angry, snapping at every little thing until being forced outside to cool down.

He basically vanished into thin air.

They had just gotten back from a case; a simple one, all the victims were found alive and untouched in the unsub's basement. Harrison Edwards, the unsub, was kidnapping women who resembled his wife who had died previously. He had a history of mental illness and the death of his wife finally made him snapped.

By the time the team had gotten to the house, he was setting up a crudely-made bomb in the basement where he was keeping the six women he had kidnapped. They were able to talk him down and he let the women out before detonating the bomb, taking the house down with him, not being able to handle the guilt.

_He_was the one to actually get the women out of the house and Morgan had to drag him away from the house before the unsub blew the bomb. They both had gotten singed by the fire and were taken to the hospital. Morgan had gotten out later that day after getting his arms wrapped up and had rushed to _his_room to see how he was doing.

That's about the time Hotch and the rest of the team arrived at the hospital. They came into the waiting room and approached the nurse's desk just as Morgan came rushing down the hallway with a furious look on his face. He looked like he was going to punch the first person to mess with him, so when he asked where _he_was, the nurse quickly complied, telling Morgan the room number.

Morgan grabbed the male nurse on the collar of his scrubs and pulled him close to his face before yelling that no one was in that room. Hotch and Rossi had to use all of their strength just to get the darker man away from the scared nurse. They calmed him down enough, which wasn't much, to explain what he meant that no one was in the hospital room. Morgan merely stalked down the hallway and the two older profilers followed as JJ and Prentiss apologized to the nurse for their friend's behavior while asking him to double-check the room.

Morgan slams open the door to reveal an empty hospital room; the only signs of someone occupying it were the disheveled sheets on the bed and the abandoned food tray, food untouched. Two orderlies and a doctor came rushing into the room, the doctor ordering the other two to call security after doing a quick look around.

After security came and ushered everybody out of the room, they searched the room and found a piece of paper under the pillow, the only words on it were 'he's mine.' The security quickly checked their records and they had no reports of someone leaving the hospital unattended by the medical staff. After taking everybody's statement, they allowed the BAU to take control of the situation, seeing as it was one of their own taken.

After _months_ of searching, they had yet to find a lead to where _he_was taken; Garcia couldn't even find anything on him after that day. After a few weeks, they started slacking on their work, files and such, and Strauss had to set them straight by telling them that if they didn't start picking up the pace, she would have the case on their missing agent moved to another team. That had quickly gotten them back to their normal pace.

A knock on Hotch's door brings him back to the present and before he could say come in, a blur of yellow comes rushing in, talking so fast that Hotch has a hard time understanding her. Garcia seemed to wear even more bright colored clothes after _he_ was taken, trying to keep the mood light even though everybody knew it was much the opposite.

"Garcia." The sharp call made her stop talking and look up at Hotch like she just realized he was there. "Why are you here?" She let out a soft 'oh' and quickly moves towards his desk, her mouth moving quickly again.

"Okay, so, I started looking again since we haven't had a case for a few days and I know that you would rather have me doing something probably more productive, but even though it might seem like a lost cause to everybody else, I refuse to give up on him and-"

"Garcia!" She quickly shuts her mouth and stares at Hotch with wide eyes as he runs a hand over his face. "Slower this time; why are you here?"

"I found him." Those three words made him freeze and he slowly looks up at the suddenly ecstatic technical analyst.

"Who?" He has to make sure. He can't get his hopes up only to have them killed on the spot by the chance of finally getting their missing family member back.

Garcia breaks out into a wide smile, a few tears making their way down her cheeks, smudging her make-up, "Reid."

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**Do you people think I should continue? It's up to you! Please review~~**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow****… ****A **_**lot **_**of ****people ****wanted ****me ****to ****continue ****the ****story****… ****I ****woke ****up**** and ****found**** so ****many**** emails ****just**** for**** this ****story! ****Also,**** if**** I**** don****'****t ****update**** regularly, ****it****'****s**** because**** my**** dinosaur**** of**** a ****laptop ****finally ****died**** on**** me**** and**** I**** have**** to**** wait ****until ****February ****to**** get**** a ****new**** one** T~T **I**** hope ****you**** enjoy ****the ****second**** chapter**** of**** Forgotten!**

**.o.O.0.O.o.  
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"Are you sure? We can't get everybody riled up just because you have a hu-"

"I know it's him!" Garcia interrupts him, "I was doing some snooping around and I was using facial recognition to see if there are any recent photos of him, you know? I found one on Facebook, the social networking site, where he's in the background of a picture, just sitting there like he doesn't have a care in the world!" She slams a picture on the desk and Hotch fights back a flinch at the sudden sound before looking down at a picture of two teenage girls, laughing in the middle of a sidewalk, and people sitting at a café in the background. Garcia slips another picture in front of Hotch and his eyes slightly widen in surprise at what he sees.

It's a blown-up picture of one of the people sitting in one of the café's in the background. And sitting there, drinking from a cup and reading the newspaper, is Spencer Reid, their missing agent for almost a year. The dark-haired man looks up to an excited Garcia before looking down at the picture again, not believing his eyes.

"…And this is recent?" She quickly nods her head multiple times as she watches his eyes trail down to the picture again, trying to take in the fact that they found him. They can finally reunite their broken family.

He stands up and walks out of the office, Garcia close behind, and ignores the looks he gets from the rest of the team as he goes straight towards the bubbly analyst's office.

"What was that about?" Morgan sits down on his chair, not taking his eyes away from here he had just seen his baby girl and boss run off to her office.

Prentiss looks up from her file and towards where Morgan was currently staring. "I don't know, but I hope it's a case. Even if we do deal with crazy people, I just want a reason to get away from all this paperwork." Morgan doesn't reply he just starts on his small pile of files, thinking back to all the times he snuck his own files in with Reid's.

'_No __Morgan_,' He mentally berates himself, '_don__'__t__ go __down __that__ road.__ You__ will__ just__ end__ up __blaming __yourself__ for __everything__ and__ there__'__s __nothing__ you__ can __do __now, __so __no __point__ in__ making__ yourself __feel__ guilty__ about__ it.__'_

Prentiss briefly glances back up to Morgan and frowns when she sees a drastic change in his behavior from before. She lightly sighs and closes her folder, leaning back into the chair. Just at that moment, Hotch comes rushing down the hall, a manila folder in hand, and knocks on JJ's door, walking in a moment later. Morgan and Prentiss share a look before standing up, feeling that their boss and media liaison are going to come out of that door any second and declare that they have a case.

A few minutes later, Hotch comes out, looking more serious than ever, followed by a teary-eyed JJ. "Meeting. Now." Garcia comes out of her office and stands at the top of the stairs, waiting for Morgan and Prentiss.

"Baby girl, what's going on?" He places his hand on her shoulder, worried about the dried tear tracks running down her cheeks. Garcia doesn't reply, only smiles and leads them into the room, sitting down in one of the chairs. Morgan and Prentiss follow her and sit on either side of her, worriedly looking around at their team. "Hotch, man, what's going on?" Morgan repeats, hoping to finally get and answer about why Garcia and JJ are in tears, yet still look happy.

JJ stands in the front of the room, using her remote to turn on the projector and a picture of their missing agent from when he first joined the BAU popped up. Morgan tensed and Prentiss slightly gasped, both wondering if something had happened to Reid.

"A few days ago, a picture was taken by two girls." Said picture comes up next, the same picture that Garcia had shown Hotch not five minutes ago, "They were visiting Greenbelt, Maryland for family purposes and they took pictures everywhere they went." The background of the picture is zoomed in on and shows one of the café's in the back, a Starbucks, and there they see a brown-haired man, sipping from a cup and reading a local newspaper.

"We have to treat this like any other case." Hotch breaks the silence, "If we don't we will be kicked off and a different team will take over. Got it?" Everybody silently nods, not taking their eyes away from the photo. "Wheels up in twenty." They all rush out of the room and think the same thing, '_He__'__s __alive.__'_

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**Well, I hope I didn't disappoint any of you wonderful people. I'll try to get the next chapter up by the beginning of next week, but no promises! Please review, they make me update faster!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Sorry that I didn't update sooner, I was waiting for my mom's laptop to come in so that I don't have to work on the story in public. I hate working on my stuff when people can see what I'm doing, it's so embarrassing! . Also, Greenbelt, Maryland is a real place and the police department is real too. I wanted to make this story as realistic as possible, except for a few things, so I'm using as many real factors as I can :D Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"Damien? Could you come help me real quick?"

"Sure, just a moment!" He puts his book down onto the bed next to him and stands up, silently moving down the hallway and to the kitchen where the voice had called him. Damien's father, a short, blonde man named Christopher, stands in front of the sink, drying his hands off with a rag.

"Could you get the big pot down from the cabinet up there? I was thinking we should do a stew tonight, what do you think?"

Damien pushes some of his short, black hair –recently cut and dyed- out of his face and nods, going for said pot. "Yeah, sounds great. Do you need any help with anything else?"

"Let's see, we have potatoes, broth, carrots… We have everything but the meat. If you could go down to the store and get a few pounds, that'd be great."

"Okay, I'll be back in fifteen minutes then." Damien grabs a twenty from his father's wallet and goes to the doorway to put his shoes and coat on. He looks into the mirror and grimaces at how pale and thin he looks compared to his father. Dad always said that he got his genes from his mother with the tall, skinny stature.

After making sure he had his phone and keys on him, he walks outside and feels a slight breeze. It's nice enough out that you're not freezing, but you're not hot either; typical weather for autumn. Damien zips up his coat and decides to walk to the store, walking past the car and down the street, waving to the neighbors as he sees them.

After that accident a few months ago, they moved away from Virginia to get away from the memories. Well, Damien's dad wanted to get away, Damien himself has no recollection of the accident whatsoever. All he knows is that it involved him, his mother, and a car crash. Damien's afraid to ask his father because every time he tried to talk about it, he would turn silent and simply say that his mother was a beautiful woman.

He doesn't bring it up anymore.

Damien quickly enters the warm store and moves towards the back, where they keep the frozen items. He looks through the meat packages before picking a few of the best ones and moving back to the front, grabbing a book from a rack on the way. The cashier looks to be a sixteen year old, not wanting to be there at all judging from the look on her face. Alice, the name tag reads, tosses the meat into a bag along with the book before practically snatching the money from Damien and handing him his change and receipt.

Damien smiles and cheerfully says "Have a nice day!" before leaving the store, not hearing the "whatever" she threw back. After putting the change into his pocket, he takes out the book and opens up to the first page, reading it while walking. Damien was always able to finish the most complex books in a matter of minutes and his father would always say that he was just a bright boy. He could also remember everything he sees, being able to recite any book he has read, word for word. This kind of bugs him though; shouldn't he be able to remember something from before the accident? Something must've hit his head, causing amnesia, and it could sometimes take years to remember things for amnesia victims.

A jerk on his arm pulls him out of his thoughts, his grocery bag and book flying up into the air while he falls flat onto his butt, letting out a surprised yelp. He watches as a truck goes speeding past him a foot in front of him, where he was standing not a second ago.

"Whoa, man, gotta watch out where you're going."

Damien looks up at the person standing above him, currently looking at where the truck had just went by, and takes in the dark skin and big build, not recognizing him.

'Must be someone passing through.' The man finally turns to look at him and seems to freeze on the spot, his eyes getting as wide as dinner plates. Damien furrows his eyebrows, wondering why he got such a reaction, and stands up, brushing off dirt from the seat of his pants.

"Well, um, thank you for that… I'll make sure that I watch where I'm walking." He quickly gathers his stuff, fast-walking away from the man, wanting to get away from the small group of people now staring.

"Hey, wait! Reid!" Damien hesitates from turning the corner, but a quick glance behind him at the man trying to get to him is enough leverage to keep moving. He doesn't turn back as the shouts for 'Reid' get smaller and more far apart, almost running back to his house.

As he bursts into the front door, slamming it shut and leaning on it, he closes his eyes and tries to calm his racing heart. Thoughts race through his mind; why did that man seem so familiar and why was he calling him Reid?

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"Damn it! Where'd he go?" Derek muttered as he looked around. He lets out an aggravated groan before pulling out his cell phone, sparing glances around him. "Hey, Hotch, I just saw Reid… I was on my way back to the station and he was just walking down the street and almost got hit by a truck! Thankfully, I was there to pull him out of the way before he got hurt…" Derek starts walking down the sidewalk, quickly walking across the crosswalk, "I didn't even recognize him before I saw his face; he died and cut his hair! Now it's, like, jet black… Fine, I'll see you there." He snaps the phone shut and lets out a sigh, jogging down the sidewalks.

Ten minutes later he arrives at the station, breathless, but he doesn't stop until he's in the room his team set up. They were able to convince the local police that they were on a special case, one that had to do with one of their own, and they were more than happy to help.

Hotch quickly walks up to him and has him tell the whole story, every single detail.

"Then he just starts walking away from me and when I try to catch up to him, he's gone. Hotch, man," Morgan says, staring up at the elder, "He acted like he didn't even recognize me. Why would he do that?"

"From what we know now," Hotch starts hesitantly, "I would say that he's scared. His captor, the unsub, could be holding him, making him stay here and change his appearance."

Before Hotch could say anything else, Chief James Craze comes in and gives Hotch a serious look.

"We know where he lives." He walks deeper into the room, feeling all of the team's eyes on him, and continues. "There's this guy, he moved in recently with his son from Virginia, so people don't really know him, but the son; we've talked to the neighbors and everybody loves him, apparently. He's nice, polite, and selfless. The neighbors described him having long brown hair when he first moved here, but about a week afterwards, he cut it short and dyed it black. When asked why he did it, he would just shrug and say 'I wanted to try something different.'" Chief James read from his notepad, quoting one of the neighbors they interviewed.

"Have you tried interviewing the father?" Hotch asks, everybody else too shocked to say anything.

"When we went up to the house, no one was home, so I figured we'd see if he was home today."

Hotch nods and looks around at his silent teammates, thinking of what to do next. He couldn't really send all of them there and surround the house, they first have to check it out and see if it's really Reid. "JJ and I will go with you. What's the address?" Chief James says the address and tells them that he'll meet them in the parking lot, having to do something before they leave. "Garcia, look into the man who bought the house and do a thorough background check; I want to know everything about him if he's the one with Reid."

She nods her head and her fingers start moving rapidly across her keyboard, almost a blur to everyone's eyes. Morgan stands up, "Hotch-"

"The reason I'm going with JJ is because I have to, Strauss' orders, and I don't want the man to feel intimidated by you." He looks around at his team, noticing a few missing. "Where are Prentiss and Rossi?"

"Rossi said he had to take care of something and Prentiss went with him. Said that if they need anything, to just call." Garcia answers, not looking up from her screen. She pauses a moment and looks up at Hotch with a smile. "But what they say and what they do are two different things entirely." She goes back to her computer and Hotch shakes his head while Morgan and JJ hide their smiles.

"Let's go." JJ stands and follows Hotch out of the room and building, meeting up with Chief James in the parking lot before taking off in one of the BAU's cars.

Morgan moves a chair next to Garcia and sits in it, watching as things fly by across the screen, "You got anything yet Baby Girl?"

"Just a moment, my Chocolate Adonis, and I shall have what you seek… There we go! Call Hotch for me, hun, and put it on speaker." A second later, the room is filled the voice of their boss. "Okay, the man who moved into the house is named Christopher Thomas; he's a forty-two year old who lost his son almost a year ago. A few months ago, the time when Reid was taken from us, his wife died in a car crash."

"That must be the stressor. How did he lose his son Garcia?" JJ calls out, holding the phone up for everybody in the car to hear, Hotch speeding up the car slightly as Garcia continues.

"His son, Damien Thomas, died… in a house fire. The stove was faulty and a gas line broke, making the kitchen explode while he was in it. Christopher and his wife came home to find their house up in flames with the fire department everywhere. It was their anniversary, so the son wanted to do something nice for them." Everybody is silent for a moment, taking in the information, before Hotch breaks the silence.

"When was their anniversary?" More typing is heard over the phone before a small gasp. "Garcia!"

"S-Sorry! Um, their anniversary date was October 15… That's today, sir."

"Is that smoke?" Chief James asks, pointing out the window and towards the sky. His eyes widen as they get closer and he realizes where it's coming from, "That smoke's coming from the house! We have to hurry!"

"Call Rossi and Prentiss and tell them to meet us at the house. We'll call the fire department." Without another word, Hotch grabs the phone from JJ and shuts it before shoving it into his pocket, stepping fully onto the gas as he does so.

"You call Rossi, I'll get the police over there." Morgan stands up from his seat and kisses Garcia on the head before running out of the room, "You did good Baby Girl!"

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**Well, that's chapter three! Sorry for not updating sooner, it's been a bit busy lately. Oh no, what's going to happen next? Oh wait, I already know… If you see anything wrong, or you just want to give me a little tip in how to make the story better (I always take suggestions), just write me a review by pressing the little button below ;)**


	4. Chapter 4

"Dad, I'm back." After getting his breathing back to normal, Damien walks into the kitchen and drops the bag onto the counter. "Dad?" He looks around for his father, only seeing the unattended pot on the stove, nothing inside. Walking towards the back rooms, he smells a weird scent coming from one of the bedrooms, like gasoline. A panicked feeling rising in his chest, he pushes open his father's bedroom door to see him emptying a gasoline tank all over the bed and dressers. "D-Dad? What are you doing?" 

The blonde-haired man turns with wide eyes, noticing his soon for the first time, before smiling and turning back to the room. "I'm making the preparations, son. It's okay, I'll be done soon."

Damien furrows his eyebrows and coughs slightly, the smell overwhelming. "Dad, you need to stop this. T-This isn't healthy! And preparations for what? Are you going to burn down the house?" He follows his father down the hall as he finishes off the rest of the gas on the couch in the living room. "Dad!"

Damien stumbles back when the gas tank is tossed in his direction, barely catching it. "Son, it's okay, we'll be together again as soon as I'm done." He pulls out a Zippo lighter from his pocket and lights it while Damien's eyes widen to a comical size.

"Dad, stop it, you're s-scaring me!" He's near tears by now, trying to get his father to put down the lighter, "C-Come on, we'll go f-for a walk, you just need to g-get away from the fumes. Please, d-dad, this isn't like you." Damien grabs his father's hand, the one with the lighter, and tries dragging towards the door. The shorter simply shakes his head and grabs his son's wrist with his other hand, flicking the lighter open with a small flame.

"Damien," he looks into his father's eyes, a green-ish blue, and hopes that he finally convinced him, "It's okay. Calm down, son." He pulls him into a hug and drops the lighter on the couch, the cotton bursting into flames almost instantly. Damien struggles to pull away from the embrace, finally succeeding in getting free after getting his sleeve caught on fire.

He lets out a yell as the heat reaches his arm, patting it out. When Damien looks back up, he sees that the fire has reached all over the house, everything slowly being covered by the heat and smoke quickly rising. Keeping his arm up around his nose and mouth he moves deeper into the house, calling out for his father.

A crash behind him makes him jump, nearly tripping on his own feet into the fire. "Dad! Where are you?" Hacking coughs start wracking his body, making him pause before continuing down the hallway. He barely registers the yells outside his own home and the sirens getting louder, coming closer. Damien looks into the rooms before finding his father in his study, loading a gun.

"What are you doing? The house is on fire, we have to get out!" The gun is pointed at him and a shot fired, sending him to the ground in pain. Tightly holding onto his thigh, he looks up at his dad just before the gun is lifted to his own forehead and another shot is fired, right through his father's head.

"DAD!"

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"Shots have been fired, we're going in now." The door is broke down and the firefighters quickly rush in, getting the fire in the entrance calm enough to enter. The BAU team wait impatiently as more yelling is heard from inside before they come rushing out again, just before the house starts collapsing on itself. In the arms of two of the men is a dirty and unconscious Spencer Reid.

"I'll ride with him, meet you at the hospital!" Hotch calls out, jogging to catch up with the ambulance before they shut their doors. Everybody rushes to the vans and follows the ambulance through all the traffic, letting the fire department do their jobs in taking out the fire.

Hotch watches as they attach an oxygen mask to the younger agent and work on his thigh, trying to get the bullet out, while attaching an IV to his arm. He silently stays as close to the corner of the seat as he can, not wanting to be in the way as they help him.

He can only thank every god-like being that his subordinate, his _family_, was okay. Well, not _okay, _but he was finally back where he belongs, in Quantico, with people who care about him.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"What do you mean we can't see him yet?" Morgan stands up, looking ready to beat someone, and steps towards the doctor. The doctor, Dr. Tran, stays impassive, as if used to this kind of behavior, and calmly explains to the taller man that the patient needs to get some rest and they'll keep an eye on him.

Garcia walks over and leads the livid man away with a calming hand on his arm. She sits him down in a chair and plops down in the next one, talking quietly to Morgan with a smile on her face, causing the other to smile as well. Rossi is talking to Hotch near the corner while JJ and Prentiss sit a few chairs away from Morgan and Garcia.

Thirty minutes later, and a lot of restless pacing can happen in thirty minutes, Dr. Tran comes back out and everybody stands up. Hotch stands in front of him as the rest crowd behind him, knowing that they're boss will get the information they want.

"He's awake right now and his leg is wrapped up from the GSW. He'll have to walk with crutches for a while, but at least the bullet didn't hit anything too important to cause permanent damage. We got his breathing back to normal and there's no more smoke in his lungs, so he should continue breathing normally, except for the occasional cough, but we're still going to keep an eye on that."

Hotch nods as he takes in all the information, hanging off every word the doctor has to say. When Dr. Tran seemed to be finished talking, he asked if they could see him.

The doctor stays quiet for a moment, thinking about something, before replying. "I'll let two people in at a time and if he refuses to see anyone, then no one goes. Got it?" Everybody quickly nods, eager to see their long lost teammate and family member. He gives them the room number and Hotch looks back at his team and, after receiving a few nods, starts moving down the hall to the room, his heart racing just slightly. He hears the heavy steps behind him and knows that Morgan followed him. Hotch knocks on the door before entering, Reid's head shooting up as they walk in.

"Reid, you have no clue how happy I am to see you again." Morgan rushes forward and stops at the side of the bed, looking at the bandages wrapped tightly around his thigh. "Man, must've hurt getting shot there again."

"I'm sorry, but I think you have me confused with someone else." Reid interrupts Morgan before he could continue talking, "My name's Damien, not Reid. Are you sure you have the right room?"

"Reid, it's okay. Christopher Thomas isn't going to hurt you, he's gone. You don't have to pretend anymore." Reid gives Hotch a look and tenses his shoulders, giving him a glare.

"My dad would never hurt me! He just wasn't himself when he… s-shot himself." Reid struggles over the word, the memory of his father drenching everything in gasoline and shooting him before himself coming back to the front of his head. He shakes his head, his short, black hair moving slightly with the movement, trying to push the thoughts away.

Morgan looks up at Hotch, unsure of what Reid was doing and the older man steps forward until he's almost in front of Reid's face.

"You don't remember us? Reid, think hard. Think to what happened before you were taken a few months ago." Reid looks between the two men, feeling slightly threatened, before deciding to keep his eyes down at the blanket, not meeting the intimidating eyes of the other two. Hotch lets out a sigh before motioning for Morgan to walk over to the door.

"What's going on, Hotch?"

"I don't know, but could you get JJ in here? Maybe she can keep him calm enough so we can get some answers." Morgan nods before leaving the room, leading JJ in a moment later. He shuts the door on his way out and heads back to the rest of the team, thinking of how he was going to explain that their resident genius has forgotten all about them.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"Um, okay, I'm not sure how to start, so I'm just going to go right in." JJ said more to herself than to the others in the room. After Hotch had explained the situation to her, she was determined to at least get Reid, or Damien, as he insists his name is, to trust them so that they could get answers and explain to him who he really is.

"You're not going to call me Reid, are you?" The young man asks, exasperated, and JJ can't help the smile that breaks through.

"No, I'm not. You said your name is Damien, right?" She waits for a nod before continuing, "Well, Damien, my name's JJ and I'm part of the BAU. Do you know what that is?"

Reid doesn't reply immediately, but when he does it sounds hesitant, like he's unsure if it's the right answer. "Behavioral Analysis Unit…?" Hotch and JJ look slightly surprised.

"Yes, that's right. A few months ago, our teammate, Spencer, was abducted from the hospital after we had just finished a case. He was actually the reason we were able to solve the case, and a lot of others too…" JJ trails off, remembering all the times Reid had solved cases just by using his brain, not even needing to go out into the field. "You see, Rei-_Damien_," she caught herself, "our team is like a family; a dysfunctional one, but loving nonetheless." Hotch smiles slightly, happy to know that he wasn't the only one in their team who thought they were much closer than just coworkers. "And Spencer was like the little brother to everybody; always being watched and fussed over and always trying to prove that he was one of the big dogs, do you get what I'm saying?"

Reid nods his head, understanding what she was saying, just not on a personal level. He was an only child, but he would sometimes watch over the little kids in his neighborhood and show them magic tricks when they were bored. "But what does any of this have to do with _me?_"

JJ gives another smile, this one a little sadder than the others, and continues, "I'm going to have another one of my teammates come in, so that this will be easier to explain, okay?" Reid slowly nods, kind of weary of what's going to happen next. JJ asks Hotch to get Garcia for her and to make sure she has her laptop with her. He quickly exits the room, leaving JJ alone with her new/old friend.

"Do you have any kids?" The question takes JJ by surprise and she looks up at Reid with questioning eyes. He ducks his head, suddenly embarrassed, "Well, I was only asking because you seem like you would do really well with kids and you have a ring on your finger, so I just figured…"

The blonde smiles fondly and looks down at her ring, twisting it around her finger. "Yes, I am married and I have a boy; his name is Henry." She looks back up at Reid to see him smiling slightly and that causes her smile to turn into an almost grin.

Garcia slowly comes in, knocking on the door slightly to make the others aware of her presence. "Hey guys, what's going on?"

"JJ was telling me about her son." Reid happily replies, eyeing Garcia's clothes in curiosity, but not saying anything about it. "What's your name?"

"My name's Garcia, sweetie. But if you prefer to be on a first-name basis, then it's Penelope." She sits down on the chair across from JJ, on the other side of Reid, and opens her laptop. "I am going to help you understand what's going on, okay?"

"Okay…" Reid watches as she starts typing on the keyboard before turning the screen towards him. He looks up at Garcia for a second before looking at the photos she pulled up. After a moment, his eyes widen in surprise, and as he continues scrolling through more pictures, his expression turns into more of confusion. "That… That's me."

"Yeah, it is…" Garcia mumbles, letting him take the computer from her and set it on his lap. He clicks on the pad a few times, more pictures coming up of him with various people.

"…I'm sorry, but I'm really confused right now. How did I know you people, I mean," He stops for a moment, staring at a few more pictures, "I have nothing to do with the BAU, much less the FBI… right?" Reid whispers the last part, unable to tear away his eyes from the screen.

"Damien," His head shoots up to face JJ, "You know how I told you about Spencer?" Reid nods his head, glancing at Garcia, "Now, I want you to use that big ol' brain of yours. Put together what you know; ask yourself why we're here, why we're talking to you, why I told you about our teammate…" She watches as he furrows his eyebrows before his eyes widen in realization.

"But… How…" Garcia grabs Reid's hand as tears start to fill his big eyes.

"I'm sorry, Damien, but you're Spencer Reid." The tears finally leak over and he jerks his hand out of Garcia's grasp, looking down at the blanket.

"C-Can I be alone? Please…" The women share worried glances and make no effort to move. "Get out!" The sudden shout makes them jump and they hurry to get out of the room, shutting the door behind them just before Reid's body starts shaking with sobs.

"What happened?" Morgan takes in the guilty expressions of Garcia and JJ, rising from his seat.

"We told him. He kicked us out." JJ kept it short, not wanting to get into the details of seeing him breakdown.

"I think we should give him some space, let him get his thoughts together."

"What, no! We can't just leave him alone!" Morgan turns to Rossi, the elder's expression staying calm.

"So much is going through his mind right now; knowing Reid, he's going to try to file everything in his mind, trying to make the most sense out of what he knows, and that always takes a lot out of him." Rossi uncrosses his legs and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, peering up at Morgan, "Just give him some time, Derek. We'll come back tomorrow and check up on him."

"He's right, Morgan." Hotch interrupts, "We'll leave our number at the nurses desk, so that if anything happens, they'll call us, okay?"

Morgan lets out an aggravated sigh before drawing out a 'fine.' Hotch walks up to one of the nurses working the desks and briefly speaks with her before writing on a piece of paper and thanking the woman.

"Let's go."

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

Reid woke up to something being moved around him, the movement slightly startling him.

"Oh!" The nurse gasps when Reid shoots up in bed, staring at her with wide, red eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you. I was just checking the machines." He calms down a bit and nods, rubbing at his eye.

"It's okay, you just scared me a little. Do you know what time it is?" She nods and looks at her wrist, a neon green rubber watch wrapped around it.

"It's about 10 in the morning. I'll bring your breakfast up and have the doctor check you out, okay?" Reid nods, knowing he didn't really have a choice, she was just asking to be nice.

She checks a few more things and writes on her clipboard before leaving without a word. Reid feels surprisingly lonely in the hospital room, the only thing heard being the heart monitor. Before his mind could trail off to the memories of yesterday, the nurse is back with a tray full of food. Reid thanks her and she smiles back before leaving the room again. He grimaces at the food, poking it around with his spork.

"I don't know why they think this stuff is good for patients… It looks like they just took whatever was lying around and slapped it on a tray." He says, poking it a few more times before sighing and deeming the water and jello good enough to eat. Peeling open the red jello, he sends one more grossed out look to the rest of the food, and digs into the sweet dessert.

The doctor comes in and gives Reid a tired smile, "Good morning, Damien. How are you feeling today?" Yesterday, Dr. Tran made the mistake of calling him Spencer and was very tempted to sedate the man with the tantrum he threw. "No difficulty breathing or anything?"

"No, everything's fine." Dr. Tran nods his head and writes a few things down, moving to the side of the bed.

"That's great. I just need to check your leg and I want to test your breathing, just to make sure that there is no smoke left in your lungs." Reid nods and flings the covers off his legs, letting the man unwrap the bandaging around his thigh. The doctor prods at the stitched area, asking a few questions before getting some new gauze and wrapping out. "I'll be back in a while to do your breathing test; I just have to check on another patient real quick, okay?" he asks while clipping on the fastenings to keep the wrap in place. Reid quietly says an okay as Dr. Tran moves to a closet by the doorway and pulls out two crutches, leaning them against the wall next to the bed. "While I don't recommend walking around yet, you can use these to get to the bathroom without putting too much strain on your leg."

He walks out of the room with a good bye after his beeper started going off, finally giving Reid some time to think. He looks around the room again, seeing his clothes neatly folded and put into a bag on a chair near his bed. Biting his lip, he looks towards the door for a moment and back to his belongings. He quickly grabs the crutches and the bag and carefully limps his way into the bathroom, locking the door.

Fifteen minutes later, he walks out of the room, hospital gown forgotten on the bathroom floor, and signs himself out at the nurse's desk. After finally finding the elevators, while evading his doctor and any possible nurses looking for him, he makes his way out of the hospital and into the cool, autumn air. Reid digs around his pockets and miraculously finds the change from the grocery yesterday. He hails a cab and gives the man the money, telling him to just get him as close to his house as possible. An affirmative nods is all he gets and he looks out the window, thinking of what he's trying to accomplish by leaving the hospital and going to his burned down house.

Oh God.

What was he going to do now? He has no home. He can only hope that his father had insurance. But what about those agents? If what they're saying is true, then he isn't who he thinks he is. He saw those pictures, though, and that was definitely him, laughing, smiling with all those people. All those pictures were of him with, what he's guessing, the BAU team. He did see a few of him and an elderly, wise-looking woman with short, blonde hair.

'She looked really nice. I wonder who she is,' Reid thought as he watched the colors of the trees become a blur as they speed by them, 'She can't be part of the BAU because it didn't even look like she was in the same building as the rest of the photos. Maybe she's retired or something…' The car stops and the man declares that this is far as he'll take him. Reid mutters a thank you before hobbling out of the cab, dragging his crutches out with him. The bright yellow car dries off as soon as the door is shut and Reid doesn't notice, taking in his surroundings before calculating the best route to take to his house.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**How was that? I'm trying to make the chapters a bit longer so that it'll be more of a read instead of these short little snippets. Sorry if some parts seem rushed, half of this was done when I was half-asleep and running off of chocolate and Monster . Not the best combination, but what are you going to do? *shrugs* Also, even though Reid knows himself as Damien, I'm just going to continue to refer to him as Reid to lessen anybody's confusion. If you think I didn't get anybody's character right in my writing, please tell me so that I can improve! I like it when people are criticizing of my work, so that I can make adjustments and come out with better work. Uuuummmm, I think that's all I wanted to say… Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

Reid stares at what used to be his home, the charred remains a depressing reminder that everything that has happened wasn't a dream. A small part of the roof collapsed on itself at some point and the house still seems structurally sound, for the most part.

He walks forward, using the crutches to help, and hops onto the front porch, avoiding any areas that look too burned to walk on safely. The front door is broken in and he easily enters the house, the smell reminding him of a campfire. Reid moves deeper into the house before one of his crutches get stuck between two pieces of fallen roof, sending him crashing to the ground.

With a yelp, he lands harshly on his side, biting his lip to hold in his scream of pain, instead letting loose a long, load groan. He stays there for a moment, trying to will away the hot white flashes of pain shooting up from his thigh. After shifting around, sitting on his bottom now, he tries pulling his crutch free from the rubble. Reid finally gives up after a few pulls, biting his lip in frustration, and stands back up, using his other crutch and wall for support. Looking around at the burnt wood, he limps his way to the rooms, wincing every other step. He finally makes it inside his father's room, which is, surprisingly, not as bad as the rest of the room.

"I need answers." Reid speaks out loud, "I need to know if what those people are saying is really true."

He hurries to the drawers, quickly digging through them, throwing them to the ground as he empties them. Next, he goes onto his belly, pulling out anything and everything from under the bed, finding only some clothes and some shoes. Reid looks around the room, groaning in frustration before his eyes land on the closed closet door. He crawls towards the door, not even noticing the pain in his leg by now, and throws open the door, diving straight towards the shoeboxes.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

Hotch parks the vehicle and hurriedly takes off his seatbelt, jumping out of the car and running into the house, the other car pulling up and parking next to him. He leads his team into the house and they split, going off into different directions; Morgan by himself, JJ with Hotch, and Prentiss with Rossi.

"Man, there you are." Morgan walks more into the room, Reid not even noticing his presence. He touches Reid's shoulder and the younger gasps, flinching away from the touch. "It's okay, it's just me." Morgan just now notices the boxes in front of him, all open and filled to the brim with photos and a few small children's toys. He looks back at Reid to see his head hanging down and his body slightly shaking.

Before he could ask what was wrong, Reid starts speaking, "They're all of Damien. The _real _one. He just made me into a copy." Morgan picks up a few of the photos and his eyes widen in surprise, taking in the pictures of a young man with short, black hair and a wide smile. He turns his eyes to Reid, their eyes meeting. Morgan can almost feel the misery radiating off of him and has to fight the urge just to take him into his arms and protect him; the fresh tears falling from Reid's big, brown eyes weren't helping him at all. "Did I really know you… from before?"

"Yeah… yeah, you did, Reid. You were like my little brother."

"So, all those pictures Penelope showed me were real? They weren't made up?"

"Yes, those are real. How about we get up and get out of here, and I'll answer more questions for you later, okay?" Reid nods and lets Morgan help him off the floor, keeping the pressure off his bad leg. "Hey, guys, I found him!" He calls out once they were in the main part of the house. He helps Reid out of the house with the help of Rossi and into one of the BAU's cars they drove here.

Hotch pulls Morgan away from the car before he could get in. "Take Reid straight to the BAU with the girls. I'll take Rossi with me to get our stuff from the police department. Be careful with him." Morgan nods before jumping into the front of the car, JJ already sitting in the passenger seat.

The ride was deathly silent, the only sound being the engine and the wind whipping past the car. After Morgan parks the car in front of the BAU, happily sliding out of the awkward silence that filled the car for the few hours they were stuck in traffic, he moves behind him and helps Reid out of the car, letting him grab his one crutch and the girls help him hobble into the building while Morgan keeps the door open for them. Going through security wasn't as bad as he thought it would be, all they had to do was flash a few badges and assure them that Reid was with them and that he wouldn't be any trouble. They finally make it to their floor with no flaw and Garcia and JJ help Reid to his desk while Prentiss watches, not wanting to crowd the young man. Morgan moves more towards his desk, knowing that Reid was in good hands, and calls Hotch, telling him that they had made it back.

"That's good," Hotch sighs, sounding exhausted, "Make sure he's okay and just let him look around the place, see if he recognizes anything. Dave and I are having a little trouble at the station; nothing to be worried about, but we're not going to get back until late."

Derek nods as he takes in the information, "Okay, Hotch. Are you sure you don't need any help? I could come back and leave Reid here with the girls." He didn't really want to leave his friend, but he felt bad if there could be something to help his boss and he didn't do anything about it.

"No, it's just a small mix-up. Dave looks to be settling it about now, so we'll probably be heading out soon."

There's a silence on the phone, both parties waiting for the other to say something, until Morgan breaks it with a hesitant air about him.

"Hotch, man, what are we going to do about his mom?" Hotch didn't have to ask who he was talking about, they both knew, and another silence overtakes the line. After about a minute, Morgan pulls the phone away, seeing if he had hung up, and placed it back to his ear. "Hotch?"

"I'll have Dave call her. He's been keeping contact with her, as much as we could with our job, but she still knows him the best out of all of us." Derek nods, glad that he wasn't going to be the one to call Diana Reid, the fiercely protective mother of his best friend. After saying their goodbyes, they hung up and Morgan turns to see Reid staring off into space, the girls having left a few minutes ago.

"What's wrong?" Reid's head shoots up, causing the hair he has left to bounce around slightly before settling back to its previous place.

"Oh, nothing, I was just looking through the desk. Penelope told me that it was mine from before, so I thought that I might as well start trying figuring out who I really am." His gaze fixes on the wall across from him again and Morgan moves forward to lean on the man's desk.

"Did you find anything interesting?" For the whole time Reid was gone, nobody had the heart to empty out his desk, or to even go through it. The few that tried to even go near it, Morgan was there, guarding it like an attack-dog.

"Not really. Just a bunch of files." Morgan watches his body language, looking for any sign of lying. When he found none, he felt a little hurt. Did Reid really not feel comfortable enough to keep any personal belongings at work? Reid, thankfully, pulls him out of his thoughts before they could get too depressing, "You said that my name was Spencer, right?"

"Yup. Spencer Reid, boy genius." Morgan says with a smile. After seeing Reid's look of confusion, he quickly adds, "You're a genius, man. You have an IQ of 187, can read 20,000 words per minute, and you have an… eidetic memory? Yeah, that's what it called." He nods to himself, proud that he was able to remember what it was called.

Reid's eyes turn wide when Morgan mentions his IQ, but they returned to normal size once he thought about it. It made sense; he always knew more than his 'father' about most things, especially random facts that came out of nowhere ('Did you know that the lion in the MGM logo killed it's trainer after it was filmed?' 'How do you know that?' 'I…don't know.').

"Can you… call me Spencer?" Reid looks up at the older man, his eyes wide, and Morgan smiles, slightly ruffling his hair.

"Sure, I'll call ya Spencer." His phone starts ringing and he pulls it out, glancing at Reid as he answers. A few minutes later, he's ushering Reid into Garcia's office, "Hotch wants me to start another case with JJ and Prentiss, so I'm gonna leave you with baby girl, alright?" Reid nods his head, watching as Morgan hurries down the hall. He turns to the door and knocks on it lightly. After hearing a 'come in,' he opens the door and looks around the dark room, eyes focusing on the computer screens.

"Here, sweetie, you shouldn't be standing with that bad leg." Garcia pulls out her other chair, patting on the cushion, "Come here, I don't bite!" Reid lets out a small smile before sitting down, slightly spinning around. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, okay? The Magnificent Penelope can get you anything with just a few computer clicks away!" A small chuckle escapes Reid and Garcia grins brightly, lighting up the dim room.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**Sorry that this was so late and is so short; I've been busy with the holidays coming up and I've had a bit of a writer's block. The story should really start rolling in the next chapter hopefully, so I'll try to update as soon as I can! Also, sorry if anyone seems out of character, this chapter was a little rushed so I didn't really have time to go over it. If I don't update before Christmas; Happy Holidays Everybody!**


	6. Chapter 6

Garcia shifts nervously in her seat, the silence deafening to her ears. She tried to make conversation with the quiet boy next to her, but he has yet to show any sign of wanting to talk. A knocking sounds through the room, making her slightly jump. Garcia glances at Reid before sliding over in her chair and letting the person in.

"Hey Garcia, I have some photos and I want you to do a facial recognition to see if you can find out who these boys are." JJ hands over a folder from her stack of papers while staring at the quiet and downcast Reid. She makes a motion towards him and Garcia just shrugs. JJ sighs and warns Garcia, "I know you don't like seeing blood or anything like that, but this case is bad and we need to find out who they are."

"Oh, poor babies…" She looks through the photographs, each one making her heart swell with sadness at how young they looked. "Don't worry, I'm on it." JJ nods and leaves the room, glancing one more time at Reid before shutting the door. "Reid, hun, are you okay?" His head shoots up and he flushes in embarrassment.

"Yeah, sorry, I just spaced out. What are those?" He gestures to the folder Garcia was holding, hoping that she wouldn't question any further. Garcia's silent for a moment before placing her hand on his knee.

"Sweetie, if you ever want to talk, I'm right here. I won't judge or anything." Reid opens his mouth to say something but is interrupted by Garcia, "Anyway, these are just some pictures JJ dropped off. She wants me to a run facial recognition; see if I can find them, which I can." She proudly announces while pressing on some buttons on the scanner next one of her computers, frowning when nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" Reid asks once she started mumbling and the frown didn't leave her face. He jumps when she slams her hand on the machine, getting up with a growl.

"This is mutiny! I thought you loved me? I take care of you!" Garcia rants to the scanner, opening the back and growling again. "How is that even broken? Did Kevin tough you again? As much as I love that boy, he needs to stop messing with my babies."

"Who's Kevin?"

"He's my boyfriend and he always messes with my scanner and computers when he's trying to do something. He may be a computer whiz like me, but he _really _needs to work on his organizing skills." Garcia sighs and moves towards the door, "Sorry sweetie, I'll be right back. I just need to get a small part for my scanner." She leaves the door open and Reid slumps in his seat, looking around at the room again. His eyes land on the manila folder Garcia left on her chair and he picks it up.

Reid places the folder in his lap and opens it, his eyes widening at what he sees. There were two boys, both stabbed repeatedly in the torsos, looking to be in their late teens. But that wasn't what shocked Reid; it was the blood. There was so much of it, it was everywhere.

A stinging pain shot through his head and he let the folder drop with a gasp. Pictures start filling his head, all of them of people covered in blood. Reid's hands shoot up to his head, squeezing, trying to stop the pain.

"Hey, sweetie, Morgan wants to know if- Oh my God, are you okay?" Garcia immediately goes down on her knees, putting her hands on Reid's. "Reid, honey, what happened? Oh God…" She mutters the last part to herself when it seems like the other didn't even hear her. She stands and leans out of the door way, looking around. "Derek!" She calls out once she saw the man. Morgan stops where he is and looks at Garcia, rushing forward when she calls for him again.

"What's wrong, baby girl?"

"It's Reid; he-he was fine before I left, but when I came back-" Her nervous explanation is interrupted by a loud groan behind her. The two people in the doorway turn just in time to see Reid fall to the ground, unconscious.

"Spencer!" Garcia and Morgan call out as they both move forward, trying to get the younger to wake up. After a few moments, Reid groans again and his eyes flutter open.

"Oh my God, Spencer, are you okay?" Garcia helps him sit up, watching him like a hawk for any signs that he was going to pass out again.

"Y-Yeah… I think so. What happened?" Reid looks up at the two, brow furrowed in confusion.

"You tell us, Spencer. Garcia called me over here because she was freakin' out over you." Reid looks even more confused now, looking around as if he just arrived.

"I…" Reid adjusts himself, getting into a more comfortable position, "I was looking through the folder JJ gave Garcia and my head just started hurting… t-then all these pictures started rushing through my head and I guess I passed out…"

"What were the pictures of?" Morgan asks, knowing that his friend just had a flashback of sorts, and nothing bad had happened.

"Just, all these pictures of people covered in blood. I'm guessing they're crime scene photos because they all had those number tags in them, you know?"

"Do you think that those were your memories?" Garcia looks so hopeful, eyes wide with unshed tears.

Reid nods his head, jumping a little when she moved forward, enveloping him in a bone-crushing hug. He strangely did not mind this and even hugged her back. He looked up at Derek to find him smiling, not as big as Garcia's, no one can beat her smile, but it's still there.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"Sorry about your apartment, man, but we couldn't hold on to it." Morgan pushes open his door, switching on the light as he walks past it. "We put all your stuff in a storage unit, though."

"It's fine, and thank you." Reid looks around the home, taking in every detail and saving it to memory subconsciously.

After relaying to Hotch what had happened once he and Rossi got back, he decided that they all had enough for the day and sent everybody home. While Reid was busy with JJ and Garcia, the two girls smothering him like mother hens, Hotch pulled Morgan aside and told him that Rossi had called Diana Reid.

Rossi was the only one to really stay in touch, other than the occasional visits from the rest of the team, admiring her vast knowledge and happy to have someone to talk to that didn't work with him. Don't get him wrong, the people are great, but he just needs a break from the blood and gore every once in a while.

"How did that go?" Morgan asked, sending a thankful glance to Rossi which he pretended not to notice.

"The doctor told Rossi that she just nodded her head and said 'I told you so.'" He's talking about when the news of Reid most likely being dead, or never to be seen again, reached Diana. She didn't really have a reaction; just told the doctors that they were wrong and she seemed so sure of it. When asked why she refused to believe them, she simply said 'A mother knows.' "I'm giving you some time off so that you can get Reid settled in and make sure there's no trouble. Take him to Las Vegas; let him see his mother, maybe he'll remember more."

Reid nearly jumps out of his skin when a big Golden Retriever comes barreling down the hallway, nearly running into Morgan's legs.

"Hey, boy! I was wondering where you were!" He gets down on one knee, rubbing the dog as he rolls onto his back for a belly rub. He stands back up and faces Reid, "Reid, meet Clooney; Clooney, Reid." Clooney tilts his head to the side before trotting up to Reid and looking up at him. Reid nervously glances at Morgan before clearing his throat.

"Um, hi, Clooney…" Said dog nudges his hand, trying to get him to move it. Reid pets the dog, looking much more relaxed now that he was sure that the dog wasn't going to hurt him.

"Tomorrow we'll go to the storage place and you can get some clothes from there. For tonight, I'll just give you some clothes to wear to bed and I'll put the ones you're wearing right now in the wash. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds great, thank you." They move into the living room, Clooney happily following the two before settling onto the couch, claiming one end of it.

"Make yourself at home, Reid. Since it's pretty late, why don't we just order something, so we don't have to go out again?" Derek waits for Reid to nod before going into the kitchen and coming back out with some menus, "Which one?"

Reid only glances up at him and looks back down at Clooney before shrugging his shoulders, "I don't care, you pick."

Morgan just picks a Chinese place he likes and gets Reid's order before calling the place. They just sat in the living room, watching television, while waiting for the food to arrive. Once it did, they ate in relative silence, only disrupted by random questions from Reid ('What do you do outside of work?' 'How old is Clooney?' 'How many houses have you fixed?').

"Here's some clothes, your room is right there and the bathroom is right across from it." Morgan opens the bedroom door and moves aside so Reid could walk in. "Do you wanna take a shower? If you do, then I could throw your clothes in the wash."

"Sure, if it isn't too much trouble."

"Not at all. The towels are in here," He gestures to a small door next to the bathroom, "And I'll leave some clothes on your bed when you get out. I gotta take Clooney on a walk real quick, so just leave your clothes outside the door and I'll get them." Reid once again thanks the man and grabs a towel before locking himself in the bathroom. He listened to Morgan's heavy footsteps as he walked away, taking in the silence.

He turns on the shower, letting it heat up as he pulls off his clothes, placing them outside the door as requested. After washing his hair, with a small shampoo he found in the cabinet, and cleaning the rest of his body, he just stands there, relaxing in the heat of the water. Reid glances at his hands and decides to get out at the sight of his skin pruning. He dries off with the towel and wraps it around his waist before quickly walking across the hall to his designated room, shutting the door quietly behind him. Reid dresses himself in the clothes, smiling slightly at how big they were on him, and starts walking out to the hallway while shaking the towel through his hair.

Reid bumps into Morgan and stumbles back, dropping the towel. "Ah, sorry, I wasn't paying attention."

"It's alright, Reid. Are you done with this?" Morgan picks up the towel and takes it to the laundry room once the other nodded his head. "I'm going to take a shower myself, so you can just do whatever. If you're not tired yet, you can watch TV in the living room, all right?" Reid nods his head and starts down the hallway, hearing the shower turn on as he walks into the living room, Clooney already on the couch. He sits opposite of Clooney, only to have the dog place himself on Reid's lap and huff at him. He slowly starts petting the dark golden hairs and picks up the remote, turning on the television.

He switches the channel a few times before settling on some documentary about Russia's vast land and the animals that reside there. Before long, Morgan has finished his shower and sat down on the chair next to the couch, looking to be very interested in the show, but Reid knows better.

"Could you please stop glancing at me every two seconds? It's not like I'm going to burst into flames or anything." Reid says without even looking at Morgan. He hears a sigh and a small shuffle as Morgan turns in his chair, facing Reid.

"I'm sorry, Reid, but I can't help but worry about you. Now that you're actually back, I'm afraid that something's going to happen at any moment and you won't be there anymore, or that I'll wake up and this whole thing will just be some dream."

"You have no idea how many times I've thought of all of this just being a weird dream. I keep thinking that I'm going to wake up and just go on about my day like I would any other time, but, so far, that hasn't happened." Reid rubs at his eyes, now showing how exhausted he truly feels. Clooney nuzzles his thigh, trying to give the man comfort, and Reid smiles down at him. "I know I've said this a lot today, but really, thank you. You're basically risking your social life by taking me in and helping me try and remember my life, who I was before, and I am really grateful. I'm really lucky to have made a friend like you before all this nonsense happened."

Morgan's speechless for a moment, his mouth not really working as his brain took in what Reid had just said to him. He knew that the other considered him to be his friend, but to actually hear him say it made him really happy.

"No problem, pretty boy, I'm really lucky to have a friend like you too." And he really did. It took quite a bit to earn the man's trust and Morgan felt proud that he had it. In turn, Reid had Morgan's trust, and that's no easy feat either.

"What did you call me?" Reid tilts his head, sounding confused.

"I called you 'pretty boy,' I used to all the time before, you know…" He trailed off, not really wanting to explain further, and Reid seems to understand this because he doesn't question it.

"Why? Is it because I had longer hair?" Reid fingers his short hair, only a few inches in length and slightly wavy, the black hair dye fading at the roots.

"Well, that, and because you aren't really the picture of masculinity." Reid looks down at his body and suddenly feels self-conscious. "Not that it's a bad thing!" He reassures, "It was just a nick-name, and it kinda stuck. It wasn't to demean you or anything, just something with friends, you know?"

Reid just raises an eyebrow and after a moment, he makes and 'ohh' sound, like he had just realized something. "I get it now. You know," he smiles, "you could have just told me from the beginning."

"Told you what?" Morgan feels really confused right now, especially when Reid breaks out laughing. "Wait, I don't get it! Told you what?"

Reid gets ahold of himself and stops laughing, but the smile never leaves, "That we were together! Oh my God, I can't believe that I didn't realize it sooner, especially withal those pictures."

"What? No, man, you've got it all wrong! We weren't a couple!"

"We had to be! In every picture I saw of myself, you were almost always there and you always had some kind of physical contact with me!"

All Morgan could do was gape at his friend, a blush steadily rising to his cheeks.

"Okay, maybe we were just 'friends with benefits,'" Reid put up quotations with his hands, that damned smile still in place, "But we had to have something going on, be it just casual sex or a full-on relationship."

Morgan, once again, is too flabbergasted to even form any coherent words, so he's just stuck there doing a very good impression of a fish out of water.

"No! We didn't- Just no! Oh God…" Morgan hides his face in his hands, not wanting the other to see his red-tinted face.

"So what was it; friends with benefits, or boyfriends?"

"Dude, I don't even know if you have a sex drive!" Morgan looks up at him, still feeling slightly embarrassed, "We weren't together in any way. We are just friends. Nothing is going on between us." His voice is stern, trying to get the point across to Reid.

"Well, to an outsider, it looks like you two are together," he says with a chuckle, absently petting Clooney's head.

"Whatever, I'm just saying that we weren't together. I saw him as the brother I never had."

"Why do you say it in past tense?" Reid's voice is quiet, "It's not like he's never coming back. He's here physically," he gestures to his own body with his free hand, then to his head, "He's just stuck in here somewhere. I'm slowly getting better and turning back, so don't act as if he's never coming back." Everything's silent, the only sound is the television in the background, long-forgotten. "Do you have any family?"

"Yeah, my mama and two sisters." Morgan's a little worried about the sudden change in topic, but decides not to push it; he doesn't really talk about that anymore either.

"I saw some pictures of a woman when Garcia was showing me at the hospital. She said that she is my mother, but why is she in some hospital? Is she sick?"

Crap. Why does he have to be the one to explain this? 'Well,' Morgan thinks, 'at least it's me and not someone he doesn't trust. I don't even know how he's going to take it. Maybe he won't react as badly as I think he will.'

"Yeah, your mom's sick. She's at Bennington Sanitarium in Las Vegas, where you grew up. She has Schizophrenia."

Reid just stares at him for a moment and Morgan feels uncomfortable under his gaze.

"You used to send her a letter every day because you felt bad that you weren't able to see her more often." Morgan continues once he realized that Reid wasn't going to talk, "But you're afraid of going there because you see what you might turn into one day. You told me once that you knew what it's like to be afraid of your own mind. I didn't understand at first, but now I do."

"Her told her about me, after I was taken?" Reid's voice once again takes that quiet, shy quality, something that Morgan is so unused to.

"We called the place and her doctors told her. Rossi stayed in touch and gave us updates as needed. He said that she didn't believe for one second that she was never going to see you again."

"I… I'm not sure how I feel right now." Reid said with a small laugh, his conflicting emotions confusing him. "I mean… All of this sounds familiar and feels familiar, but I just don't know how to take it because I don't remember it myself."

"Everybody wants you to get better, but we know that it takes time for someone to remember basically their whole life. That's why Hotch gave me some time off, so that I could help you get settled in and, hopefully, remember some stuff." Morgan sighs, suddenly feeling tired, "Look, I was thinking that sometime this week, we head over to Las Vegas so you could see your mom. What do you think?"

"Yeah, that sounds great." He glances at the clock and stands up, disturbing Clooney from his sleep, "I think I'm going to go to bed now, if that's okay."

"Yeah, sure. I'll go to bed in a bit, I just have to clean up a little." Each say good night and he watches Reid walk to his room, Clooney following close behind. 'Traitor,' He thinks with a smile. After cleaning up, he went to his own room and was asleep before his head even touched his pillow.

Reid is fast asleep, Clooney on the foot of the bed. After a while though, his head shoots up and he stares at Reid's sleeping form. The dog stays like that for a while until he hears a whimper. He scoots closer and the whimpers get louder, accented with a few groans. Clooney noses under Reid's hand, snuggling up to his side, and licks his cheek, calming the man. He soon falls asleep.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**Ahh, I hope this somewhat makes up for not having a good updating schedule. I know I suck at that, but I'm a horrible procrastinator. I will, hopefully, have the next chapter up this weekend!**

**I made Clooney a Golden Retriever because I think we can all agree that Morgan owns a big dog and I just chose a breed I know well. Besides, retrievers are amazing protectors, but are still great with families. It just scream's "Morgan's dog" at me, you know?**

**Since I'm back in school, I should be able to be more on a schedule instead of willy-nilly, but I can't make promises when I know that I might break them.**

**Anyway, please review, as they help give me motivation to write more for you wonderful people! Also, Happy (late) New Year!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I changed the summary, it goes with the story a bit better, I think. There's a bit of a time skip. It's not much, just a few days so Reid can see his mom. Enjoy!**

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Morgan asks for the 23rd time, if Reid remembers correctly.

"It's a little late to go back now, Morgan." They were standing in front of Bennington Sanitarium, and they've been standing there for about seven minutes, just looking in through the glass doors.

They already checked into a hotel, deciding to just stay for the day, maybe longer if Reid feels like it, and had gotten something to eat before coming straight to the sanitarium. Morgan didn't comment that Reid had barley eaten his food, just pushed it around, knowing that he was nervous about the visit. Reid went to the bathroom while they were waiting for the food to arrive to splash water on his face. Just because he doesn't remember anything about his mother, doesn't mean his body doesn't. Morgan remembers that Reid had said once that when he actually did visit his mom, he would get nauseous and it would get worse until he actually saw her.

"Come on, let's get this over with."

Reid starts walking towards the building, Morgan right behind him, his nerves making his hands shake slightly. Morgan got to the door first and opened it, letting Reid in first. Morgan took care of checking themselves in and making sure everything was ready while Reid just looked around, feeling a sense of familiarity with the place, even if it wasn't doing anything good for his nerves and stomach.

Before he knew it, they were standing in front of the door to the day room, Watching Diana Reid read in her chair, placed by the window. Morgan stays off to the side, sitting in a chair placed in the hallway, and Reid sends a thankful glance towards him, not sure if his voice would work at the moment and not wanting to try it. Morgan just nods and takes out his phone, starting to text someone, but glancing at Reid every now and then.

Reid steels his nerves and walks into the room, a few patients glancing at him before going on with what they were doing. He stops a few feet in front of Diana, his stomach finally calming down, but still feeling on edge.

He clears his throat, "Um… Hi Mom…"

She finally looks up from her book and her eyes widen in surprise, the book dropping from her lap when she stands to take him into her arms. Reid stands there in shock for a moment, not knowing how to react. His arms feel like they move on their own when they start wrapping themselves around Diana, hugging her back. He barely registered the wetness on his cheeks or on his shoulder, only feeling a sort of completeness with this woman, his mother, in his arms again.

He can hear her mumbling something and shifts a bit until he could make out that she was saying "I told them you would come back. I told them…"

He doesn't know why, but that just made his cheeks even more wet, his vision blurry.

Morgan looks back into the room, smiling when he saw them hugging, and he can feel his eyes prickling with tears when they pulled back, both with wide smiles and tears trailing down their faces. He goes up to the nurse's desk, asking for Diana Reid's doctor. He'll let them catch up while he gets an update from the doctor, wanting to get an update on how she has been doing these past months. He felt bad that he wasn't able to keep up with her, but at least Rossi stayed with her, everybody else too busy and not really wanting to be reminded about Reid's disappearance.

"Are you Derek Morgan?"

"Yeah, thanks for coming down, Doc." He shakes hands with the doctor before each take a seat by the wall where a line of chairs were for people waiting for their loved ones. The day room where Diana and Spencer Reid were to be found is still in view, and the doctor glances at them, a small smile pulling at his lips.

"I'm glad that she gets to see him again before anything happens." A line appears between Morgan's eyebrows, showing his confusion, and the doctor elaborates, "Before Spencer was… taken, Diana's health wasn't so good. We told Spencer and he said that he would come out soon, but before he could…" He trailed off, both men knowing what happened.

Morgan notices that he calls them by their first names then realized that this man works with her almost every day; some bridges are bound to be built, especially with people as interesting and unique as the Reids.

"Her health started going down and it went even faster when he didn't come that day. Once we got word about what happened, we were worried that she would just keep getting worse, but she proved us wrong. Diana didn't get worse, but she didn't get better either. We're not even sure what's making her sick, but we do know that, basically, her body's giving out" The doctor, Dr. Tran, gives off a sigh and looks to the room, watching Diana talk to Spencer as they sit across from each other, their hands laced with each other's.

"Do you think she's going to get better now that Spencer's here?"

"I don't know. The only thing we can do now is just keep an eye on her and try to figure out what exactly is wrong. I had blood sent in to a medical specialist and those results haven't come back yet."

Morgan nods his head, wondering if he should tell Reid this or just wait.

'Of course you should tell him. It's his own mother' A voice rings through his head, 'But if you tell him then that could just make him even more worried and that won't really help with his recovery.' Another voice argued.

"Mr. Morgan, I think you should tell him." Morgan's head snaps to the doctor, surprised that he was able to tell what he was thinking about, "Even if he isn't… all there, it's still his mom and he should know. If her condition gets worse then he'll be prepared for it, he'll know how to deal with it." He nods his head, thanking the doctor. "I just realized; why don't you already know this? I've told Mr. Rossi this a while back and I thought he would've told the rest. Your team, I mean."

"I… I don't know." He honestly didn't. How come Rossi didn't deem this bit of information important enough to tell them? He would definitely call him after they were done here; he had to give Hotch an update anyway.

Dr. Tran's name is called over the intercom and he dismisses himself with one last look at the subjects of their conversation. Morgan is left there to his thoughts, the air around him suddenly suffocating. Luckily, Reid pops up beside him and Morgan has to fight down the urge to jump.

"Do you want to see her?" Morgan just nods, ignoring his red, puffy eyes as he leads him into the room. "Mom, I don't remember if you ever met him, but this is Derek Morgan, he works in the BAU with me?" His voice elevates in the end, making it sound more like a question than a statement.

"Yes, we met once, when you made me fly on one of those horrid airplanes. You're one of the government people trying to take away my Spencer." Reid's outcry of 'Mom!' was ignored.

"I'm not trying to do anything bad to Spencer, Ms. Reid, I promise you." Even with her red eyes and tear-stained cheeks, she still looked as fierce and protecting as she did the first time Morgan saw her, "I would never do anything to hurt Spencer, he's my best friend."

Reid slightly flushes at this and his mom smiles, "Please, call me Diana. Ms. Reid makes me sound old." Morgan smiles and nods, happy that she doesn't think of him as a threat to her only child. "I was just telling Spencer about when he was little; would you like to join us?"

Morgan hesitates, feeling like he was invading on his friend's life, but the reassuring smile Reid gives him is all the encouragement he needs to stay, though still feeling like he didn't really belong there.

"Sure, thank you."

"Of course. Okay, where was I…?"

"You were explaining how I was around Halloween." Reids says and Diana nods her head, grabbing his hand again.

"Yes, thank you Spencer. As I was saying, you were always excited for the whole Halloween thing, even though it's not a real holiday. But I always went with you when you wanted to go trick-or-treating…"

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

A tall, brown-haired man walks through the glass doors of Bennington Sanitarium, moving to the desk and quietly talking to the woman before nodding and walking down the hallway, looking into the occasional room. He comes to a halt once he reaches the day room, watching three figures talking to each other. He can see the back of the two men, but he can clearly see Diana Reid, talking amiably to the others, occasionally gesturing with her hands.

He slowly walks up to the small group until he could see who the two men are. The one with the dark-skin was one of the agents he recognizes from when he was accused of that whole Riley Jenkins incident a while back, God bless his soul. Once he saw the other person, his jaw went slack.

"Spencer?" Suddenly, three pairs of eyes are on him, two of them surprised and one confused.

"William, what are you doing here?" One of the surprised people, Diana, asks.

"I was in the area and I thought I should check up on you, see how you're doing. I didn't know you had visitors." He looks at his ex-wife, but he could still feel Spencer's confused look on him. He turns back to his son, "Um, Hi Spencer." William had gotten news about what had happened and now that his son was right in front of him, he felt surprise, but mostly relief. Relief that his son was alive and well. He felt the urge to just go up to him and hug him, but repressed it, not knowing how he would react to it. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm good… How are you Dad?" He glanced at Morgan and his mom, finding surprise on their faces. He was surprised himself, but once he saw William's face, it just registered in his mind, and he could feel a headache slowly making its way into the front of his skull.

He was on a rocky road with his father, the conversations short and awkward, not knowing how to act with each other. They were slowly getting better, but that was still quite a ways to go. Reid had apologized for the whole Riley Jenkins incident and his father forgave him, knowing that his memories had just misled him.

"Reid, you remember him?" Morgan asks before William could reply.

"A little… I recognize his face and it just kind of clicked when you called him William." He nods towards Diana and looks back at the now confused Mr. Reid.

"What do you mean 'you remember him'? Why wouldn't he remember me?"

"Were you told about what happened to me? When I was taken?" Reid slightly rubs at his temple, the headache making a dull pain pulse throughout his forehead. No one seemed to notice except Morgan whose gaze stayed on him for a moment before moving back to William.

"Yes, of course. I couldn't function for weeks after they told me and I've been worried since. You have no clue how relieved I am that you're here now and well." Reid smiles slightly, feeling happy at those words, knowing that his father actually did worry and care about him.

"I'm not exactly well. I am in the physical sense, but not mentally." Reid starts, not really looking at anyone in the eyes, "The guy who took me, Christopher Thomas, somehow gave me amnesia, making me forget everything in my life, even my name. He told me that I was his son and that I was in a car crash, which was why I couldn't remember everything." Everybody's eyes were on him and he could tell that Morgan was memorizing his every word, having not heard the whole story yet, and probably going to tell the rest of the team at some point. "I didn't question it, not even when we moved to Maryland from Virginia, when he made me dye my hair, when I wasn't allowed to talk… to anyone…"

Reid suddenly felt really stupid. How could he _not _question something like that? Out of all the times they took the long way around town just to avoid the police station, or when he made him wear a hat and sunglasses while crossing the state lines when that police car had pulled them over for speeding, he didn't think just _once _that there was something weird about all of this? Especially the part about how he had magically come out of that car crash physically unharmed while his 'mother' was so tragically killed that his own 'dad' couldn't speak of it.

He didn't realize he was crying until he felt his mom's hands on his face, brushing away the few tears that had leaked, and his dad's hand on his shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly.

"Ah, sorry… I don't know what came over me…" He wipes at his eyes, letting out a humorless laugh, "God, I've been so dumb…"

Nobody had questioned him or brought it up again, but the rest of the visit was still pleasant, but the looks Morgan kept sending him were getting kind of annoying, and his headache –bordering migraine- wasn't helping anything. He got some memories back as well, from when he was little and his father was still with them; it was a sad moment to learn that his dad had left them because he wasn't able to take the stress of knowing what his mom had seen all those years ago. Reid truly believes that he's a good man; he just wasn't strong enough to take on something like that. Some memories were good and some bad, but at least he was remembering who he is, who he used to be.

"Do you have any Advil on you?" Reid asks once they were back in the rental car Morgan had gotten and were back on their way to the hotel.

"Yeah, I think so… Here." He hands Reid the small travel bottle he always keeps on his person, keeping his eyes on the road.

Reid opens the bottle and takes three out, dry-swallowing all of them, and leaves the bottle on the center console, mumbling thanks.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"I feel tired and my head hurts." He thought about what he just said and sighed, "Sorry Morgan, I don't mean to snap at you. I'm just really tired."

"It's fine; it was a stressful day for you. I'm just glad that nothing too bad happened."

'Nothing too bad' meaning the near panic attack Reid got when he had remembered a particularly frightening story from his childhood, but he wouldn't explain what it was. They had decided that it was getting late and they went their separate ways, William saying that he wanted to talk to Diana for a bit longer before leaving.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Morgan asks after a moment of silence. He knew that Reid didn't have the best of childhoods, but if talking about it would help his friend, then he would listen.

The car fills with silence and Morgan takes that as a 'no' until Reid starts talking, his voice hesitant and small. "I… was at my house, I guess, when I was younger." He takes a deep breath, "My mom was having an episode, I think. She was running around the house, locking all the windows and doors, closing all the blinds, and yelling about the government taking something away. It's a little blurry. I was trying to get her to calm down, but it was like she couldn't even see or hear me! She turned to me and started shouting at me, saying that I wasn't 'her Spencer.'" Reid stops, rubs at his eyes, and takes another deep, shaking breath.

"You don't have to continue if you don't want to." Morgan says, looking at Reid for a moment before turning back to the road.

Reid just shakes his head and continues, "She dragged me down the hallway by my arm and pushed me into a closet, locking it. I started yelling, trying to tell her that I was her son, that the government didn't take me away, but she was already gone. I could hear her rampaging through the house, breaking things. I wasn't let out until a few hours later, after she had calmed down."

Morgan was at a loss of words. He had no clue how to respond to that so he just settled with an "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. It's in the past, it's not like I can do anything about it now. At least I know that she's getting the help she needs." Morgan places his hand on Reid's shoulder and keeps it there for a moment, offering as much comfort as he can while driving.

They get to the hotel and order off of the room-service menu, not really wanting to go out again, and Reid goes straight to bed afterwards, Morgan staying up to make a call to Hotch. He tells him everything that happened today except the part about Reid almost having a panic-attack and the memory. That would stay between them.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**So, you get a bit more of a backstory. Reid's making some progress. I'm actually kind of proud of this chapter and the last; I don't know why, but they just feel well-written to me.**

**If you see any mistakes, please tell me about them! I'm trying to make this as understanding as possible with the weird plot I have going on with it.**

**Please review, they encourage me to write!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Oh my God, I just realized I forgot to put in Reid's bad leg… How the Hell do I forget something as important as that? God, I feel so stupid. Let's just all pretend that his leg was healed by magical fairies. I don't have enough time to go back and change all that nonsense, so we're just going to do that, okay? Good. Ugh, I feel so dumb for forgetting about that… I'm going to go in the corner for a bit, I hope you enjoy this chapter…**

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

Reid wakes with a start, desperately trying to free his body from the suddenly suffocating sheet cover. He doesn't stop his efforts until the sheet was bunched up on the edge of the bed, part of it falling to the carpeted floor of the hotel room. His breaths come out harsh, almost panting, trying to get air to his lungs. He looks around the small room wildly, eyes searching the darkness, only illuminated with the moonlight coming through the window. Once he recognizes the familiar form of his friend sleeping soundly on the bed across the room, he calms down.

Less than seven hours ago, they had gotten back to the hotel, and promptly fell asleep. In that time span, Reid had woken up about six times, memories plaguing his dreams. He's surprised that he hasn't woken Morgan up yet.

Reid moves off of the bed and goes into the bathroom, glancing at the digital clock that reads 6:48, shutting the door before turning on the light to not disturb his sleeping friend. He turns on the shower and undresses while waiting for it to heat up.

Morgan gets slowly pulled from his dreamless sleep by the sound of the hotel's bathroom shower starting. He groans and sits up, rubbing his face. He groans again and lets himself drop back onto the bed once he looked at the clock.

"It is too early for me to be up…" He shuts his eyes and wills his body to follow, only to get frustrated and sit back up. "Damn it." Apparently, once he woke up, he was up for good.

After searching through his bag for new clothes, he straightened out his bed and Reid came out with a towel wrapped around his waist. He slightly jumped when he saw Morgan looking at him and quickly looked down, his cheeks turning a light pink.

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Yeah, but it's okay. We gotta start getting ready anyway. Are you done in there?" Reid nods his head, keeping his eyes down, and Morgan doesn't question it, figuring that he was just self-conscious about his body.

Reid nods and moves to his bed, picking up his bag from the floor and getting clothes to wear for the day. Morgan walks past him, subconsciously looking at his friend's body for anything out of place. Right before he walks into the bathroom, he notices tiny marks on the back of Reid's neck. Before he could say anything, Reid pulls on a shirt, covering the marks. Morgan decides he'll bring them up later when they were driving to the airport, but he can't keep his mind off of them.

'I know that he didn't get those from our job, and I know he didn't have those before he was taken.' Morgan thinks while letting the warm water beat down on his body, 'So he must've gotten them while he was with Christopher Thomas. But what could leave behind marks like that?' He knew he saw those same marks somewhere else, but he just couldn't put his finger on it.

Later, they are packing their luggage into their rental car, heading for the airport. Before Morgan could walk back into the hotel to return their keys, his phone starts ringing and he answers it after seeing the caller ID.

"Good morning, Baby Girl, how are you?"

"_I'm good, I just wanted to know how my babies are doing."_

"We're fine, thanks for asking. We're about to head to the airport, so we should be back soon. Thanks for helping me with the flights and rental, by the way."

"_Yeah, about that… Your flight was canceled due to engine problems and everything else was booked. You're stuck there for another two days. Sorry, my Chocolate Adonis."_

Morgan lets out a sigh and goes back to the car, ignoring Reid's curious look and opening the trunk.

"It's fine Baby Girl, at least I didn't give the hotel their room back." After saying their goodbyes and Morgan explains to Reid the situation, they unload the car and go back up to their hotel room.

"So, what are we supposed to do for the next two days?" Reid asks, sitting on his bed once again.

"Well, we should probably get our clothes cleaned first, then we could just go around town. You know, see if you recognize anything?" He leaves it as a question, not wanting to pressure Reid into doing something he might not want to.

"I kinda want to see where I grew up, you know? See where it all began, basically."

"Yeah, that's a good idea."

After pleasantly finding out that the hotel has its own Laundromat in the basement, free of charge to their customers, they grab something to eat and Morgan has Garcia get the address of Reid's old home.

"Garcia says that the house is up for rent by its owner and that they'll meet us there so we can get inside. Are you sure you want to do this? It's not too late to back out, you know."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I am a little nervous, but I want to see if anything comes back to me."

"Okay, just making sure, man." After another moment of silence, Morgan speaks again, "Hey, do you know anything about those marks on the back of your neck?"

"Marks?" Reid's hand goes up to said body part and rubs at the back of it, not really feeling anything, "I have marks on my…? Oh wait, yeah, that's where I had my shots done."

That's where Morgan had recognized them. They were from a needle, the same kind of tracks left on Reid's arm from when he had that dilaudid addiction.

"Shots? Shots for what?" Morgan was worried now. Why would his younger friend need to get multiple shots at the base of his neck? Was he sick and he didn't know it, or was it something that Christopher Thomas did to him?

"Damien's father gave me an injection every… two weeks? Three? I don't really remember, it always messed with my head, made things fuzzy." Reid keeps his hand where it is, covering the marks with his shirt collar, "He said that the car crash made my brain unable to function properly, so with the shots I would be normal…" He stops, seeing Morgan's expression, somewhere mixed between panicked and angry. "It can't be that bad; I mean, nothing's happened so far and the doctor's didn't find anything when they did a drug screening from when I was at the hospital the first time."

Morgan takes a calming breath and decides to call Hotch as soon as he can.

'God only knows what he was putting into Reid's body.'

They reach the house and the owner gets there shortly after. Morgan explains some of the situation to her, just the parts she needs to know, and she happily lets them in. Reid goes off on his own while Morgan takes a look around with the woman trailing after him.

"Barely any work had to be done when I bought the house. There were a few holes here and there and the wallpaper needed to be changed, along with the water heater, but it's good as new now. The man who sold it to me put a good price on it and I just couldn't resist. Left all the furniture though, and I didn't have the heart to throw it away, so most of what you see is what came with the house."

"Why'd you move?" He asked to keep her busy, giving Reid as much time as he needs.

"I got a promotion and I had to move deeper into the city in order to be closer. I didn't want to get rid of the house, so I put it up for rent. It's been empty for almost three months now, but it won't stay like that for long. It's a good neighborhood and the school's not far from here." Just then her phone starts ringing and she excuses herself, saying that it had to with her job.

Morgan watches her leave through the front door before moving to the back rooms to find Reid. Reid is standing in a small room, meant for children probably, looking around at the even smaller furniture consisting of a dresser, bed, and table.

"This was my room." Reid hasn't even looked at Morgan yet, still gazing at the empty bed before moving towards the closet. "The one right across the hall was my mom's and the extra room next to the bathroom was where she sat and looked out the window. She liked to watch the people and animals outside, but was usually too paranoid to leave the house." He opens the closet door and looks in, frowning slightly.

"What's wrong?" Morgan walks up next to him and Reid starts feeling around the walls inside the closet, apparently looking for something.

"I… think I had some sort of… compartment in the wall that I would put stuff in…" He stops around an area close to the ground, "Do you have something sharp?" Morgan gives him his small utility knife he always keeps with him and watches as Reid cuts into the wallpaper.

"Reid, you can't do that! You don't own this house anymore!" He was whispering, making sure the homeowner wouldn't hear if she came back in. He stalks across the room, looking out the window and sighing in relief when he saw her still standing on the porch, phone next to her ear.

"It's fine, I'll put it back once I'm done." Reid stands back up and hands Morgan his knife back before opening the box. Morgan keeps an eye on the woman, but keeps glancing at the box, curious to see what was inside.

"Are those photos?" Reid doesn't answer him, only picks up one of them and looks at it.

He hands the picture to Morgan and goes deeper into the box, pulling out more pictures before handing them to his friend. They were all of his mother or father when Reid was just a baby, before his mother's schizophrenia had developed.

"I found them in a photo album and I kept them. The books were burned or thrown away after I had taken them, my mom thought that they had government bugs in them, spying on us." His voice is withdrawn, looking at the photo Morgan was holding of his mother sitting in a chair, reading.

Nothing was said and Reid took all of the pictures and stuffed them into his coat pockets. A piece of notebook paper fell from his hand as he was putting the photos in his coat and Morgan picked it up. He opened it up, but before he could try and read the scribbles, it was snatched out of his hand and clutched to Reid's chest. Morgan takes one look at Reid's body language –tense, ready to run if need be- and backs off, putting his hands up in a surrender gesture. Reid relaxes and folds up the paper multiple times before putting it into his pants pocket. Morgan didn't ask about it, even if the not-knowing was killing him.

Reid puts the box back before following Morgan out of the house, thanking the woman, and driving off.

**.o.O.0.O.o.**

**Ugh, sorry it's shorter than usual. I had writer's block on how to type this out, but I should be good now.**

**In other news, I have no feeling in the left side of my nose :D I just got it pierced, like, yesterday, so it feels a bit weird, but I'm very happy that I got it! Now only if it would heal faster so I can put a ring in…**

**Please review, they encourage me!**


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